In previous decades, the classical symphony from the second half of the 18th century onwards had been more or less synonymous with composers such as Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), and few observers would have mentioned Ignace Joseph Pleyel (1757-1831), the composer from Ruppersthal in Lower Austria, in this context. A thorough examination of the symphonic oeuvre of this unjustly forgotten composer, as carried out by the Pleyel Society since 1995, revealed a body of works that is capable of astonishing both audiences and musicians alike